In his previous life, the protagonist, Lu Yuan, was an honest, unlucky man. He worked hard for five years without complaint, but his entire 1,200-yuan salary was taken by his mother, Sun Guifang, to support his younger brother. His 10,000-yuan bride price was then used to pay off his cousin's debts. After marrying into the Zhao family, he spent half his life serving her useless husband, Zhao Peng, and her wicked mother-in-law. At forty-one, she died of illness on a metal-framed bed in the county hospital. Even as she lay dying, her mother was outside the ward asking whether the funeral costs could be reimbursed.
When Lu Yuan opened her eyes, she had returned to the wedding reception on New Year's Eve 2000, just as she was making the rounds to toast the guests!
In this life, she would never again be a pushover for anyone to exploit. Lu Yuan dropped the microphone on the spot and announced, "I'm not getting married!"
She turned the wedding banquet upside down, tore her ex-husband's whole family to shreds, and used her account book to reclaim every last bit of the salary and savings her mother had taken from her.
After breaking off the engagement and cutting ties with her family, Lu Yuan took her loving grandmother along, pushed a rickety wooden cart, set up a large iron pot, and headed to Qinghe County's night market to sell braised meat.
From a greasy little roadside stall, to the county's first braised-meat shop, to opening a large traditional-braised-meat factory and buying up an entire street of storefronts.
By her side was He Chuan, a tall, steady ex-soldier who protected her as she built her fortune.
Later, her wicked ex-husband and biased mother lined up on their knees, begging her to spare them a bowl of braised meat.
Lu Yuan sneered. "Want some meat? Maybe in your next life!"
